Israel, U.S. back Iran riots: Turkish FM

The Turkish foreign minister has said Israel and the U.S. are the only countries supporting riots in Iran, Anadolu reported.

In remarks made during a meeting with media representatives in capital Ankara on Wednesday, Mevlut Cavusoglu spoke about certain foreign officials backing Iranian protests.

He drew attention to two figures openly supporting the unrest in Iran.

“One of them is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the other is the U.S. President Donald Trump.”

The foreign minister emphasized that countries criticizing Iran should be “sincere” and refrain from “double standards."

Cavusoglu criticized the double standards of certain countries regarding Iranian protests and cited the example of how some countries gave their full support to the military coup in Egypt.

“Our wish is that this process comes to an end immediately. We find Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s statements positive.”

Mevlut Cavusoglu says the U.S. brought the issue of protests to the international arena because “they are strongly opposed to the Iranian administration.”

The foreign minister said Turkey is always against those kinds of external interventions, adding that all countries except for Netanyahu and Trump were being “cautious” in the face of protests in Iran.

He termed the ongoing protests in Iran an “internal” matter of Turkey’s neighboring country.

“This situation is internal affairs of Iran. But, the stability [of Iran] is also important for its neighbors. It is significant for all of us,” he said.

“We wish for these conflicts in Iran to come to an end and stability to be recovered immediately.”

Cavusoglu said Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had told him that the situation in Iran was not so bad.

He recalled Zarif as saying that Tehran was taking a careful stance against these protesters but “there are some groups with weapons, blades and Molotov bombs in their hands who caused some civilians and security personnel to be killed during random shootings.”

Cavusoglu highlighted that Iran was not against peaceful solutions and a dialogue process.

“They say Iran is not using the iron fist of the state.”

He also said any change in Iran should come through elections. “So, if there were to be a change in government, Iranian people could make it happen in the next elections.”

About the call of U.S. envoy to the UN Nikki Haley on Wednesday for a UN Security Council meeting on the protests, Cavusoglu said the U.S. brought this to the international arena because “they are strongly opposed to the Iranian administration.”